When Jace Thornwood awoke, the girl was still there. She was staring at him, a frown on her pale face. Jace quickly looked away. The less interaction between them, the better. Unfortunately, his strategy did not work very well. “You’re awake!” Vella smiled, and her teeth were whiter than snow. “I was worried that you would go to them instead of coming back.” 

Jace frowned. He knew he shouldn’t ask, but he couldn’t help himself. “Go to who?”

Vella shivered, her smile gone before it had fully taken form. “The creatures in the dark, of course. They squat in your mind like toads, and they sing a terrible song.” She sang a few notes, and they were all terrifyingly beautiful and alluring. “They want you to join them. And if you do, you become them.” Vella looked up at the ceiling, furrowing her brows as if she would see these ‘creatures.’ “My sister could not resist their singing. She went to them and never came back.”

Jace shivered. This girl just got creepier and creepier. “I’m very sorry.”

Vella turned her gaze to him, and it was intense enough to make Jace quickly look away. “I am not. It was her decision. She pays for it every day.” Vella looked down at her shackles and studied them, as if she was formulating how to escape their grasp. 

Jace shuttered and turned around, not being able to look at the terrifying girl any longer. He didn’t see Vella cock her head to the side and smile, a strange, unsettling thing. “Why do you turn away from me, Jace Thornwood? Are you frightened?” She sighed woefully. “Everyone is. Even the creatures in the dark turn away as you do. Perhaps all will turn away from me. Perhaps I will die alone.” Vella stifled a sob and wiped her eyes, cheeks already streaked with tears. 

The sound of the muffled cries reminded Jace so much of Zelie. She would go to the library at night, where she’d let out all of her anger and sadness. But Jace always tried to get to the library before she did so that he could gather blankets and pillows and arrange them in a small corner for her, along with her favorite candies. And he would sit with her and she would cry, for many things that Jace didn’t always understand. 

The thought made him turn around and open his arms to the girl, despite their shackles. Vella smiled slightly and crawled toward Jace, wrapping her too-thin arms around his neck. Jace tensed at the contact but did not pull away and waited for her shaking shoulders and sobbing breaths to cease. 

Vella pulled away and scooted back slightly. “Thank you, Jace Thornwood. You may perhaps be kinder than I had once perceived you to be.” She offered a small smile and crawled back to her corner, where she curled up and fell asleep within minutes. 

A smile formed on Jace’s lips and he watched Vella for a moment, noting how peaceful she looked when she was asleep. How untroubled. Jace then leaned back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. 

Zel, I miss you. I miss you to the ends of the Earth and back a thousand times. I really messed up and it’s my fault that I’m trapped here right now. I shouldn’t have been so stupid. I know that if you were the one who had been kidnapped, you would have already escaped. But I’m not you, Zel. I’m not kind and witty and smart and light-hearted and free and wonderful like you. I’m reckless and stupid and foolish without you here. I want to protect you, but then I’m the one who ends up being kidnapped and locked away. Without you here, I just feel sort of lost, like I’m floating around in space without anything but stars and sky in sight. I just wish I could talk to you right now. You’d know exactly what to say; you always do. I love you, Zel.

Jace looked down at his handcuffs, thinking of Zelie. She would have escaped long ago by now. Oh, how he wished he could be there with her. Jace soon fell asleep but did not see the young girl, staring at him with a horrified expression.